Ch. 7 The story of Moses offers us another opportunity to analyze how God calls each of us to fulfill a certain part of his plan. God chose Moses to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and Moses was at first unwilling. Read Exodus 4:1-17 and list all of the ways Moses tries to convince God that he would not be able to be free Israel. How does God respond? What does this tell us about what God may be calling us to do?
When God called Moses to guide the Israelites from Egypt he was unwilling and weary of the task that lay ahead of him. In Exodus 4:1-17 God is talking to Moses and trying to convince him to follow His will. Moses is trying to make God see he is just not the right man for the job. Moses then tries to convince God he must be mistaken. Moses first tells God that no one will believe him or listen to him. He claims they will not trust him when he says the Lord appeared to him. God gave Moses three things he could show the people so they will listen to his voice. The first sign God told Moses was to throw his staff on the ground. It turned into a snake, when Moses picked the snake up by the tail as God instructed him to, the snake turned back into his staff. The second sign God told Moses was to put his hand into his bosom. When Moses did this it turned the skin of his hand from the natural color into a leprous pale color. But just as God had done before, when Moses put his hand into his bosom again it was turned back to its original state. Finally God told Moses that if the first two signs did not convince the people that he had seen the Lord, he could pour water from the Nile on the ground and it will become blood.
After these three signs Moses was still weary about his ability to take on the huge job of leading God’s chosen people from bondage. Moses persisted still and told God he could not possibly manage to use his simple speech to convince the powerful nation of Egypt to let his people go and also persuade the Israelites to follow him. The Lord assures him that, as the creator of man’s mouth, He will be with him and will teach him what he needs to speak. God also told Moses to use the speaking talents of his brother Aaron to aid him in accomplishing this daunting task.
In our own lives we are just like Moses in being unsure about what we are undertaking by saying yes to God. There are times in our lives when it seems almost impossible to just keep moving forward. By reading the story of Moses it is comforting in a way to see that we are not alone in this fear. Following in Moses’ footsteps and looking at how many times God did indeed keep his word; we can see just how important it is to have complete faith in Him. When doing His will, God will probably not give us a staff that we can turn into a snake to prove we are right, but he will surely not let us down.
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